Write Down What You Want
Gary tells us how powerful it is to write down what we want. His desire to homestead in Canada became a virtual blueprint the day he put it in writing.
You know, I started making paradigm shifts early in my life, although I didn’t realize that’s what I was doing. That happened because I changed my desire about life. And that desire was to be, first of all, different. What did that mean to me when I was 9 years old? I didn’t actually know. I just knew I didn’t want to be poor; I didn’t want to grow up like my father; and I didn’t want my children, when that time came, to grow up like I did.
One of the things I learned from this experience was to know what it is that you don’t want and to write it down. Know what it is you don’t want. I wrote down, when I was a young boy, what I didn’t want in life.
But I also wrote down what I did want. I remember back in 1963, 1964, writing down my desire to go to Canada to homestead and carve a ranch out of the wilderness—and I did it at the age of 18. Age has no bearing on ability. Age has never been a factor for me in doing something.
But so many times we get locked into a “Well, I’m not old enough” or “I’m too young” or “I’m too this” or “I’m too that” or “I’m a woman and I can’t do it” or “I’m a guy and I can’t be a salesman because I can’t bat my eyes just right.” It doesn’t matter what sex you are; it doesn’t matter where you are in life.
We all make excuses for not doing things, and we often don’t realize we’re making excuses. Sometimes, we spend more time justifying not doing something than if we just DID it!
